So American Nerd's just going to sit as a static site now (and itI understand that this is the way of things, but it's still sad.
actually still gets a surprising amount of traffic for something that
hasn't been updated for months-- people just want to read about
Chicago and beading, I guess).
I enjoyed your article in defense of 80s Chicago. I could have written it myself. I'm almost done with a doctorate in music composition (all but dissertation) and I've always appreciated all eras of Chicago, early, eighties, and even recent. I think the misunderstanding about the "jazz-rock band that sold out" meme is that they were never devoted to the "jazz-rock" hybridization like Blood, Sweat and Tears or 70s fusion bands in the first place.This was a brand-new experience. I'm simultaneously thrilled and apprehensive. For where there's fan mail, hate mail is always a possibility.
To me, they're a "craft band." Every song they record is an expression of musical craft. There is as much craft in "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon" as there is in "If You Leave Me Now," and, as you point out, "Hard Habit to Break." The fact that they shifted idioms from jazz to pop rock in order to express their musical craftsmanship
is only secondary.
Bravo on a well-written and pointed article about a misunderstood and vastly underappreciated band.
Robert [redacted]
Hi Don,I distinctly remember saying to myself, "I hope I never get asked how I stumbled upon American Nerd." Of course, I not only get asked, but by the worst possible person. What choice did I have?
awesome on all counts. Hey, I was meaning to ask... how did you find
out about the site? I'm always pretty curious to hear how the word is
getting out.
Keith,Well, it was the truth.
I was afraid you were going to ask me this question, because the answer is going to sound like major ass-kissing, but I swear it's the truth...
The piece that kept me going back to the McSweeney's website (and buying Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans) was Journal of a New COBRA Recruit -- my fiance and I will still occassionally yell out "COBRA!" Anyway, I Google the authors of the pieces I like to see what else they might have written, and lo and behold, American Nerd was among the results.
Not an ass-kisser (much),
Don
Don [avoids writing his last name on his blog] is an Asian-American who loves being asked “Where were you born?” so that he can truthfully reply, “Cleveland,” and watch the ensuing discomfort. His work has appeared in McSweeney’s.
